Sheldon Tatchell – Legends Barber
Entrepreneur of the Year®
The story of The Legends Barbershop is, in itself, the stuff of legends. Sheldon Tatchell, the man behind the barbering empire, started cutting hair outside his cousin’s internet café in Eldorado Park, Gauteng, armed with a chair, a pair of clippers and a boombox, and looking for a way out of the township and its poverty.
In 2012 he opened his first barbershop in Eldos, but sadly a careless business partner caused it to close down soon after. Driven by his dream, Sheldon started making house calls on a scooter in 2013 and a year later he was able to open a shop again and the business took off. By 2018 he had nine stores and a bus that made his services mobile, and Legends was named the number 1 barbershop in South Africa by the African Hair Awards Council.
Two years later there were 30 Legends shops across the country and in 2021 Sheldon took his brand international when stores started opening in neighbouring countries. These days, you can find Legends barbershops in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Zambia – in addition to the 56 stores in South Africa. 2021 was also the year when Legends grooming products broke into the retail market; currently they are on shelves in Clicks and Dis-Chem Pharmacies stores.
Inspired by the desire to empower others, Sheldon developed the Legends franchising model and today more shops are franchises than owned by the Legends Corporation. Similarly, franchisees employ 680 people, compared to the 250 Corporation staff members.
The same desire led to the establishment of the Legends Training and Development Academy in Johannesburg in 2022. Here aspirant barbers can hone their skills and learn the life skills to succeed, and graduates have the opportunity to be employed in one of the many Legends Barbershops around the country.
The Legends Corporation has in recent times branched out into property ownership and development and most recently it launched FXDE, a company dedicated to producing high-quality, professional-grade clippers. This new enterprise that aims to provide barbers with reliable tools designed to enhance their craft, reflects Sheldon’s commitment to excellence.
Sheldon’s rise to business success is indeed legendary, but the story of how he decided to name his business is indicative of the man and his values. Back in the day when his first shop had closed and he was keeping the business going by making house calls, the elderly residents of an old-age home were regular customers on whom he called every second week. “One day I just realized I wasn’t cutting ordinary hair in that place; I was cutting the hair of legends in this community of Eldorado Park.” There and then a legend of a different kind was born.